


Warp Plasma Coils of Hanoi (based on the Towers of Hanoi and Dinosaur Comics)

by Dante8



Category: Dinosaur Comics, Star Trek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-16 01:54:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29074380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dante8/pseuds/Dante8
Summary: The idea for this fic is from https://qwantz.com/index.php?comic=3595 (Dinosaur Comics 3595) so all credit to Ryan North for that.  The fic is about Kirk and Picard, trapped in a temporal vortex, coming up with a solution to the Towers of Hanoi (actually the Warp Plasma Coils of Hanoi, with intermix chambers that need to be realigned instead of discs) in  (2 to the power of n, where n is the number of intermix chambers) − 1 moves to save all their tomorrows.  Also, Lore is there trying to stop them but is somehow a hot lady now.





	Warp Plasma Coils of Hanoi (based on the Towers of Hanoi and Dinosaur Comics)

Although Lore had trapped Kirk and Picard in a temporal vortex, it was hard for them to keep their minds on anything other than how gorgeous she was. Yes, she - somehow Lore was a woman, a gorgeous one at that, and yet somehow still recognizably Lore. "Now then", Lore was saying, "don't bother trying to use this nearby starship to escape this temporal vortex. Its intermix chambers are misaligned, being affixed to the wrong post, as I have made them have to be affixed to a certain post. You will note there is the smallest one at the top, the medium-sized one in the middle and the largest one at the bottom. Thanks to what I have done to the chambers, only recreating that same arrangement on the third post, away from the first post it is on now, could get them to work so that you could escape - but, due to my excellent work on the chambers, they can only be moved one at a time for seven times before being used to escape - and that is seven moves entirely, not seven times for each chamber. That’s the fewest moves possible. Furthermore, in order to keep from breaking them, each intermix chamber must be affixed to a post except when they are in the process of being moved from one post to another, and there are only three posts available, including the one all of the intermix chambers are affixed to now. As well, a larger chamber cannot be placed on a smaller one or it will crush it. I call this the Warp Plasma Coils of Hanoi, and it's quite hopelessly impossible, as you can see."

"Nothing is impossible!", said Picard, in what would have been the grand flourish of a Shakespearean hero if he had been able to look Lore in the face, which he distinctly was not, or at least not without losing his dignity and staring slack-jawed at Lore's hotness for a solid few minutes. "Now let me think." 

"I will not!" shouted Lore, and immediately began hopping up and down, her breasts bouncing in a most distracting way, while providing the additional distraction of shout-singing "99 bottles of beer on the wall".

"If we have 3 chambers and 7 moves", shouted Kirk through the din, "we can move each chamber once, and one of them twice." 

"I agree", shouted Picard, his eyes still fixedly on the ground although he could not help but notice out of the corners of them that Lore was now shaking her bum, "and it's clear the smallest chamber at the top has to be moved first to get to the other chambers. Let's move the smallest chamber from the first post to the third, since they all belong on the third, and then we can put the medium chamber on the middle post, which seems to make sense since it frees up the largest chamber to be moved." Kirk agreed, and so they did, while doing their best to ignore Lore singing "Reflections" from Mulan (though Picard privately thought it was quite cleverly appropriate to Lore's gender change; he had always thought Mulan was transgender rather than a crossdresser.) 

"Now then", said Kirk, "let's move the smallest chamber on top of the medium chamber, and then we can fit the largest chamber on the bottom of the third post where it belongs." Picard agreed, and so they did, while Lore made swooshing sword-fighting motions with her arm, punctuating them with lightsaber sound effects for some reason. 

"We have to put the medium chamber on top of the largest chamber, so let's free the medium chamber up by putting the smallest chamber on the first post again; that way it won't block the medium chamber's place on the third post." 

"Oh mama", said Kirk, watching Lore pole-dance with an imaginary pole, and then added, "I mean okay." They did just that, and then moved the medium chamber onto the third post atop the largest chamber, after which it was obvious they should put the smallest chamber on the third post atop the other two and then escape, and so they did.

Lore was too busy whacking herself on the bum to notice.

ALTERNATE VERSION:

Although Lore had trapped Kirk and Picard in a temporal vortex, it was hard for them to keep their minds on anything other than how gorgeous she was. Yes, she - somehow Lore was a woman, a gorgeous one at that, and yet somehow still recognizably Lore. "Now then", Lore was saying, "don't bother trying to use this nearby starship to escape this temporal vortex. Its intermix chambers are misaligned, being affixed to the wrong post, as I have made them have to be affixed to a certain post. You will note there is the smallest one at the top, the medium-sized one in the middle and the largest one at the bottom. Thanks to what I have done to the chambers, only recreating that same arrangement on the third post, away from the first post it is on now, could get them to work so that you could escape - but, due to my excellent work on the chambers, they can only be moved one at a time for 2 to the power of n moves, where n is the number of intermix chambers, minus 1, before being used to escape - and that is that many moves entirely, not that many times for each chamber. That’s the fewest moves possible. Furthermore, in order to keep from breaking them, each intermix chamber must be affixed to a post except when they are in the process of being moved from one post to another, and there are only three posts available, including the one all of the intermix chambers are affixed to now. As well, a larger chamber cannot be placed on a smaller one or it will crush it. I call this the Warp Plasma Coils of Hanoi, and it's quite hopelessly impossible, as you can see."

"Nothing is impossible!", said Picard, in what would have been the grand flourish of a Shakespearean hero if he had been able to look Lore in the face, which he distinctly was not, or at least not without losing his dignity and staring slack-jawed at Lore's hotness for a solid few minutes. "Now let me think." 

"I will not!" shouted Lore, and immediately began hopping up and down, her breasts bouncing in a most distracting way, while providing the additional distraction of shout-singing "99 bottles of beer on the wall".

"Since we have 3 chambers, 2 to the power of 3 is 8, and then subtracting 1 makes 7 moves", shouted Kirk through the din, "so with 7 moves and three chambers we can move each chamber once, and one of them twice."

"I agree", shouted Picard, his eyes still fixedly on the ground although he could not help but notice out of the corners of them that Lore was now shaking her bum, "and it's clear the smallest chamber at the top has to be moved first to get to the other chambers. Let’s move the smallest chamber from the first post to the third, since they all belong on the third, and then we can put the medium chamber on the middle post, which seems to make sense since it frees up the largest chamber to be moved." “Let’s write this down before we do anything, so we can be sure the whole thing takes no more than 7 moves”, said Kirk. So they did, while doing their best to ignore Lore singing "Reflections" from Mulan (though Picard privately thought it was quite cleverly appropriate to Lore's gender change; he had always thought Mulan was transgender rather than a crossdresser.) 

"Now then", said Kirk, "let's write that our next move should be moving the smallest chamber on top of the medium chamber, so then we can fit the largest chamber on the bottom of the third post where it belongs." Picard agreed, and so they did, while Lore made swooshing sword-fighting motions with her arm, punctuating them with lightsaber sound effects for some reason. 

"Now we would have to put the medium chamber on top of the largest chamber, so let's write that we should free the medium chamber up by putting the smallest chamber on the first post again; that way it won't block the medium chamber's place on the third post." 

"Oh mama", said Kirk, watching Lore pole-dance with an imaginary pole, and then added, "I mean okay." They did just that, and then wrote that they should move the medium chamber onto the third post atop the largest chamber, after which it was obvious they should put the smallest chamber on the third post atop the other two and then escape, and so they wrote that.

“That comes to seven moves total!” said Picard triumphantly. “And I’ve noticed for future reference that we did it by alternating moves between the smallest chamber and a different chamber. As well, we moved the smallest chamber to the third post on its first move and then to the next post on the left in each of its moves after, so we kept moving it to the left unless it was at one end of the posts, then we moved it to the opposite end.”

“And did you notice when we moved any chamber but the smallest chamber”, asked Kirk, “there was only one move we could possibly make each time, at least without crushing another chamber, so we didn’t really have to figure out how to move it?”

“Yes”, said Picard, “and we should be sure to remember all this in case we need it. Write it down.”

And so Kirk wrote, “To solve the Warp Plasma Coils of Hanoi, move the smallest chamber every other time you move a chamber, and when moving the smallest chamber, always move it to the next post on the left. If there is no post there, move the smallest chamber to the opposite end of the line of posts, but then continue to move it to the left. When you are to move a non-smallest chamber, there is only one way possible. Doing this will align the chambers in the fewest moves possible.” But he wasn’t quite sure about this, so he sketched out some posts and chambers, and arrows representing moves, and he found that although this method worked for three and five and seven chambers, aligning the chambers in the fewest moves possible, it did not work for two or four chambers.

“Hmmm,” said Picard. “I have a hunch- try solving it for an even number of chambers by replacing left with right.”

So he did, and it worked. He then rewrote what he had already written by adding “for an even number of chambers” after “to solve the Warp Plasma Coils of Hanoi” and then adding “to solve for an odd number of chambers, do the same but replacing the word “right” with “left”.

Then they solved the problem in real life and escaped.

Lore was too busy whacking herself on the bum to notice.


End file.
